In motor vehicle transmissions wherein the gear ratio is automatically adjustable, it is conventional to effect the shifting operations of the automatic transmission in dependence upon the accelerator pedal actuated by the driver as well as in dependence upon the vehicle longitudinal speed. The gear ratio changes of the automatic transmission are determined dependent upon the above-mentioned variables, mostly via shift characteristic fields. It is furthermore known to provide so-called adaptive transmission controls in order to improve adaptation of the shift operations of the automatic transmission to the driver command as well as to the environmental conditions and the particular driving situation which is then present. There are several shift strategies for such adaptive transmission controls and most are realized with different shift characteristic fields. In total, a relatively good shift strategy can be realized by selecting the different strategies or characteristic fields in dependence upon the detected type of driver and/or on the detected environmental conditions which the vehicle is subjected to at the particular time. Such adaptive transmission controls are, for example, known from U.S. Pat. No. 5,157,609 and publication "ATZ Automobiltechnische Zeitschrift" 94 (1992) 9, starting at page 428 and from the publication "ATZ Automobiltechnische Zeitschrift" 95 (1993) 9, starting at page 420. Such adaptive transmission control systems are, however, relatively complex to realize.
In addition to the above-mentioned automatically adapting transmission control systems, it is furthermore known to achieve an adaptation of the shift strategy in that the driver can, with the actuation of a program switch, select, for example, between a consumption-optimized program, a power-oriented program and a winter driving program.